What Are Warts?

Unlike skin tags, warts are contagious. Exposure to a wart, such as through sexual contact, can cause new warts to form. They do not dangle like skin tags, but have a cylindrical shape with pink or white hues. They can even appear in clumps, resembling cauliflowers, on the skin. Although they are unsightly, warts are not particularly painful, unless they are irritated through chafing, including genital warts.

What Are Genital Warts?

Genital warts only grow around the genitals. They can also be different colors, such as brown or pink. You may only have one, or you may have a small cluster. They are often described as looking like cauliflower. If you do notice one or more of these, you should see your doctor as soon as you can, because they can get much worse.

What Are the Symptoms of Genital Warts?

Common genital warts symptoms are flesh-colored, soft-to-the-touch bumps on the skin that may look like the surface of a cauliflower. They often grow in more than one place and may cluster in large masses. Genital warts usually are painless, but they may itch.

You might see or feel genital warts in your vagina or on your vulva, cervix, penis, anus, or urethra. It is also possible but not very likely to have them in your mouth, on the lips, tongue, and palate, or in the throat.

Genital warts usually develop 6 weeks to 6 months after infection. But it may take longer.

They often grow more rapidly during pregnancy or when a person’s immune system is weakened by

Causes Genital Warts?

Most cases of genital warts are caused by HPV. And there are more than 70 types of HPV that specifically affect the genitals. The HPV virus is highly transmittable through skin-to-skin contact, which is why it is considered a STI.

In fact, HPV is so common that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that most sexually active people get it at some point the key difference is whether the virus leads to complications like genital warts.

Genital warts are caused by different strains of HPV that cause warts on your hands or other parts of the body that don’t include the genital. A wart can’t spread from someone’s hand to the genitals, and vice versa.

What is a Skin Tags?

Skin tags are common, acquired benign skin growths that look like a small, soft balloons of hanging skin. Skin tags are harmless growths that can vary in number from one to hundreds. Males and females are equally prone to developing skin tags. Obesity is associated with skin tag development. Although some skin tags may fall off spontaneously, most persist once formed. The medical name for skin tag is acrochordon.

Skin tags are bits of flesh-colored or darkly pigmented tissue that project from the surrounding skin from a small, narrow stalk (pedunculated). Some people call these growths “skin tabs.”

Early on, skin tags may be as small as a flattened pinhead-sized bump.

What Causes Skin Tags?

Skin tags are very common. About 25 percent of people will develop skin tags, usually starting after the age of 50. Skin tags are more common among people with diabetes as well as people who are overweight or obese conditions that often go together.

The friction created by skin rubbing against skin, a side effect of being overweight, is what causes skin tags in certain people, and explains why skin tags often grow in body folds.

When Skin Tags can be a problem

Skin tags are harmless and don’t usually cause pain or discomfort.

However, you may want to consider getting them removed if they are unsightly and affect your self-esteem, or if they snag on clothing or jewellery and bleed. You’ll usually need to pay for this procedure privately.

This is because the removal of skin tags is regarded as cosmetic surgery, which is rarely available through the NHS. Generally, the NHS will only carry out cosmetic surgery procedures if the problem is affecting your physical or mental health.

Sometimes, skin tags fall off on their own if the tissue has twisted and died from a lack of blood supply.

Difference Between Genital Wart and Skin Tags

Even though they are both skin growths, there is one major difference. A skin tag will grow out from the surface of the skin. A genital wart, on the other hand, will not. Warts lay more or less flat on the surface of the skin, or they can look like a raised bump. A skin tag has what is called a stalk, or a trunk. Except for the stalk, a skin tag is raised from the surface of the skin.

4 Comments

Thank you for sharing this great post on the differences between skin tags and genital warts. These do look very similar and it’s important to know what you’re dealing with. The treatments for both can be quite different. In addition, genital warts are considered a STD. This post should clearly outline what you should do.

Had genital warts once when I was not very much careful about my personal hygiene. The worst thing is that I thought that it was skin tags and got the best skin tag removal kit to treat myself privately. That was something I should not have done was quite naive and landed with a dermatologist who diagnosed it for me as warts. Went through immense pain at that time. Would have been great had i stumbled upon your post at that time.